The main opponent in Luke Cutts' quest to take his fifth British pole vault title will be his Dearne ALC training partner Adam Hague, according to their coach.
Cutts, from Thurnscoe, will compete for the outdoor title he won in 2009 and 2013 at the British Championships in Birmingham on Sunday. The 27-year-old has also taken the indoor national title twice as well as silver at the Commonwealth Games and has cleared the biggest height of any British vaulter ever with 5.83m.
But he has struggled to get near that level this season, with his best outdoor performance being 5.6m back in March.
"Luke's career has plateaued a bit in the last year," said Barnsley-based coach Trevor Fox.
"He hasn't entered as many competitions as maybe he should and his heights haven't been as high as we would have liked. But he's been doing really well in training and I think he has some big jumps in him."
Although Steven Lewis, who beat Cutts in a jump-off in Glasgow last year to take Commonwealth gold, is expected to compete on Sunday, Fox believes the Barnsley man's main rival will be his clubmate Hague, from Rotherham.
Fox said: "They are the two favourites and they will work well together, even though they are competing against each other. Adam is younger but he's catching Luke up."
After Birmingham, Cutts' focus will turn to the 5.65 qualifying height he needs to clear to qualify for the World Championships in Beijing in August. It could be his second global competition after reaching the same event in Berlin in 2009.
